Memoir of a Snail (2024)
Directed by: Adam Elliot
Premise: A stop motion animated film. A woman (voice of Sarah Snook) obsessed with snails recalls growing up separated from her brother (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee).
What Works: Memoir of a Snail mixes humor with melancholy. Grace narrates her life and recounts a childhood of poverty, losing her brother to the foster care system, and later living alone and hoarding gastropod paraphernalia. It’s a tough life but the filmmakers allow Grace a glib sense of humor. Voiceover in motion pictures is often redundant but because there is little actual dialogue in Memoir of a Snail, the voiceover is an effective substitute and it enhances the story and creates a point of view. Grace’s narration has a humor of retrospection that would come across false if it were dramatized in the moment. The comedy is pitched just right; the jokes and visual humor are always in touch with the melancholy tone of the rest of the movie. That tone also suits the stop motion animation. Grace is an unusual character and the stop motion animation form suits her story and her point of view. The storytelling, the visual style, and the characterization are all impressively in sync. Memoir of a Snail creates interesting and charming characters. Much of this film is about Grace’s complicated relationship to several people in her life: her brother Gilbert, her fiancé Ken, and dear friend and mentor Pinky. All of these supporting characters are distinct and memorable but especially Pinky (voice of Jacki Weaver) who becomes a parental figure. Grace loses each of these people but her relationship to Pinky is both heartening and heartbreaking. Although this isn’t a beautiful looking film, Memoir of a Snail is beautifully made. The characters have such psychological depth and the world is rendered with such care and detail and style that it’s the kind of film in which viewers can lose themselves.
What Doesn’t: Memoir of a Snail is an animated film but this not a movie for children. It’s rated R by the Motion Picture Association and should not be confused with family friendly animated fare. The plotting of Memoir of a Snail tends to be episodic with Grace focusing on her relationships to other people. This mostly works since Grace comes out of each relationship a changed woman but the structure tends to interrupt the narrative momentum. The end of the movie contains a surprise reversal. It’s a pleasant surprise but it also cheapens the drama earlier in the movie by undoing what we believed to be true.
Bottom Line: Stop motion animation has a distinct charm and Memoir of a Snail leverages that quality with its characters and story. This otherwise unpleasant story is made accessible and even enjoyable with droll humor and engaging characters.
Episode: #1023 (November 17, 2024)